I learned how to make homemade breakfast

I am a terrible cook. I mean terrible. I can't follow the most basic and simple recipe. My whole family makes fun of me and dreads when I attempt something in the kitchen. But since I'll be moving out of the house in 4 months, my mom said I have to learn how to cook my own meals. This has been a definite step in the right direction. I successfully prepared a homemade steel cute oat chocolate almond oat meal. It didn't have much flavor and it was slightly dry but I did it!

An Essay I wrote for my Expository Reading and Writing Class (Gender and Culture-The Strive For Gender Equality)

“Equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women, and the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who's confronted with it. We need equality. Kinda now.” Feminism is defined as being the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. Unfortunately, this term carries a very negative connotation amongst nations worldwide, including the Western world. Feminists are generally stereotyped as being extreme man hating, hairy legged lesbians who go to protests and shove their beliefs down peoples throats, these stereotypes are far from reality. The truth of the matter is, anyone who believes in political, social, and economic gender equality and who wishes to break the traditional female roles is, in fact, a Feminist.

In an article by Deborah Tannen, called “His Politeness is Her Powerlessness”, two psychologists are asked what “being very polite” means. The man said, “Subservience.” The woman said, “Sensitivity.” Both of these experts were correct with their answers, but they were both describing the view of being very polite from the two different genders. Men and women tend to have different views on how to handle everyday life situations. Even  when it boils down to small tasks such as simply asking a question. Men tend to be demanding, especially when speaking to their wives or other close family members. Whereas women are more indirect when asking questions. For example, if a woman wants her husband to cook dinner for a change she might say something to the effect of “Wow! Cooking dinner can get so tiring sometimes and I’ve had such a long day!” therefore hinting to their husbands that the would prefer not to cook that night. Whereas men in most cases would state that they were hungry and they wish that their wife prepares a meal. This may not be true for everywhere in the world, such as small villages in various African countries it is normal that the women are more direct and men are more indirect and rather vague. The point of the matter is, no matter the social norm for women, their style seems to always be seen as lower in status as men’s.

Always Tampons created a short video called “Like A Girl” to bring up the question of the very common, yet insulting phrase “Like A Girl” and what exactly people believe it means. They first asked adults and young adults to “run like like a girl”, “fight like a girl”, and “throw like a girl”. They all did so in the stereotypical way which included flailing their arms around in an enfeebled fashion and complaining about messing up their hair. They then asked young girls to do the same tasks in which they performed in a tough and passionate way. When they asked these girls what it meant to them to “run like a girl” they said “To run as fast as you can.” At what point in life does it become clear to young females that how they do something will always be weaker than the way that a male does the same thing? And when did doing something “like a girl” become an insult? We all grow up believing that women are somehow weaker than men. Statistically, that notion may be correct but when we grow up believing that women are physically weaker than men, then we, in turn, end up thinking they are weaker in every way.

In 2014, Actress Emma Watson was made UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. At the launching of a new campaign “HeForShe” she gave a speech on Feminism. In her speech she talks on the whole spectrum of Feminism and how it is often unrightfully associated with “man hating” and assumptions about Feminists and their ideals. Most people view feminists as being too aggressive and over-opinionated, only caring about being “anti-men”. Although Western Civilization doesn’t struggle to the extreme that many other countries in the world do with gaining gender equality, no nation in the world can say they have achieved this social standby. Somebody needs to fight for the rights of women in places in which they can not do so personally. But what most people don’t realize is that man are also imprisoned by unfair gender stereotypes. Men are seen to be the stronger and braver of the genders and they must always appear powerful and remain unmoved by women. Watson states “If men don’t have to control, then women don’t have to be controlled.” We need to strive for a world where male and female stereotypes are less black and white, but gray on a shared spectrum. If women are allowed to be strong, then are allowed to show weakness. Because at the end of the day, we are all human and we are all vulnerable.

Equality is a necessity if we all wish to strive for a fairer and more just world and society. All of these examples show the saddening social norms of gender stereotyping which must be acknowledged by all to move our world in a more positive direction. The fact is that right now, women are seen as inferior to men in every single country in the modern world and it’s going to take a lot to break this powerful norm. If women are allowed to be strong, then are allowed to show weakness. Because at the end of the day, we are all human and we are all vulnerable. But we should all be allowed to reach a higher level of success without our gender being the deterrent.

Vague Symbols in The Catcher in the Rye

In The Catcher in the Rye there are a couple symbols being mentioned throughout the book in which I find to be very unclear about what J.D. Salinger wants us to understand from them. One of them being Holden Cauflied's "People shooting hat" and the other being his fixation with where the ducks went when the ponds froze over. It's safe to say that these aren't just small details that J.D. Salinger simply added randomly in his novel. He meant for these symbols to represent a higher symbolic characterization to Holden Caufield.
The "People shooting hat" I believe represents Holden's individuality. He never puts his hat on when he's around people he knows which can mean that he doesn't want people to know the real him. Right off the bat we knew that he was more reserved in the way that he wants to be the only person to know his true self, he doesn't want his life to be an open book which is part of the reason why he lies so frequently and to such an extreme. The hat is both a shield for his soul and a way to stand out.
The duck leaving the pond symbolizes Holden's state of limbo between childhood and adulthood. The pond freezes over and where do the ducks go? Holden is the ducks and the pond is life. When he is too mature to be a child, yet too immature to be an adult, what is he?
He's a lost soul and these symbols pull his spirit together and make him whole by reassuring his self-proclaimed humanity.

Inspired by Masterchef Junior

I've recently been really interested in the show Masterchef Junior, in case you don't know it's the ultimate cooking show but this is the children version with kids ranging from ages 8-13. Apart from being a fun show to watch, it is absolutely inspiring and mind-blowing at the same time. These kids are like any other, but they all have such amazing talent and drive and pure passion that most adults don't even have for anything. They aren't in it to win money, they are doing this competition because they are so passionate about cooking and want nothing more than to strive for the very best. It's so strange how the kids version differs from the adult version of the show because the kids are willing to help one another if another kid is in a pickle and that is something most adults would never do. People grow up learning to be selfish and to care only about personal success and forget or don;t care enough to help others along the way. These kids are young enough to be completely oblivious to this social aspects of the "real world". It's a huge eye-opener in my opinion and should be inspiring to everybody. The older we grow, it seems the more passion we lose. This type of show should be a big inspiration to pursue our own dreams without fear because little kids can do it so easily and are so much more willing to take risks. I am inspired.

Presentation Notes

Chapter 3:
-Holden is an overall extremely sarcastic person, it may be because he buries his emotions with sarcasm. He tries to hide the fact that he's in pain about various areas of his life.
-He cringes at the word "chiffonier" when his history teacher says it, then later on in the chapter he himself uses it, this is a sign that he is hypocritical.
-In this chapter Holden constantly repeats and emphasizes the word "Phony", which he believes everyone but him is.
Chapter 4:
-He is a pushover because he does Stradlater's composition while he goes out on a date.
-He's stubborn because he debates doing the composition even though he was going to do it and he he was staying in for the evening anyways.
-He writes his composition about his brother, Allie's baseball glove. He writes about this because it has a lot of detail for the descriptive composition and he has a lot of feelings about it. This shows that he isn't as heartless as we initially thinks he is.
Chapter 5:
-He begins talking more and more about his dead brother and we confirm how he feels for him like no other person in the world. He talks about him with such passion, and he's lively and bright about him,
Chapter 6:
-Holden is angry in this chapter. Angry about Stradlater going on a date with Jane and what they might have been doing in the Coach's car. Mad that Stradlater was mad about the composition, even when he was doing him a favor. He was overall just very frustrated.
Chapter 8:
-Holden lies constantly in this chapter.
-He claims that he can go on lying for hours after he has started.
-He makes emphasis on how beautiful Mrs.Morrow is and how much he loves women and how sexy they are. He loves everything they do.
Chapter 13:
- Holden starts this chapter thinking about how much of a coward he is.
-When he gets his hotel in NY, he is asked if he wants a prostitute and agrees.
-He noticed how young the prostitute was and how much she didn't care for the situation because she is a working lady, she just wants to do her job and leave.
-Holden gets very nervous and tried to come up with any excuse not to have sex with her.

Chapter 7 of Catcher in the Rye Summary

After Holden's fight with Stradlater, he goes in Ackley's room, angered by the nights events, and asks to sleep in Ely's bed to get away from Stradlater. Ackley denies him which is why he then goes on to explain how "lonesome and rotten" he feels. But for what? Because his jealousy he has from Stradlater's fate with Jane? For fighting with him? For being turned away by someone he feels so superior to? He goes on to ask Ackley about what it takes to join the monastery and if you have to be Catholic. We can assume he is a defense mechanism after Ackley told him that he needed to leave. That offends Ackley and says he can poke fun and him all he wants but not about his religion and Holden responds with this insensitive and contradictory "Nobody's making any cracks about your gaddam religion, for Chrissake-". He admits to feeling "sad and lonesome" staying at Pencey until Wednesday and makes plans to stay in New York until his parents receive the letter. The final thing he thinks about when he is packing is putting away a pair of ice skates his mother just sent him, "Almost every time somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad." I'm guessing it makes him feel sad because he feels like he isn't worthy of other peoples gifts in which they put time, money and effort into. It's getting more and more obvious how insecure Holden really is.

Chapter 5 of The Catcher in the Rye Summary

Holden begins the chapter by telling us that every Saturday evening Pencey serves the students steak. Holden's theory is that they do that because many of the kid's families come to visit on Sunday and when they ask their kids what they ate for dinner the previous night they can say "steak" so the parents are impressed by the school. In this chapter we are also introduced to "Mal Brossard" which we can guess his name represents Holden's bad choices in friends. In many languages "Mal" means bad.

Chapter 6 of Catcher in the Rye Summary

In the beginning of Chapter 6 of Catcher in the Rye, Holden tells us about how he feels when he worries, which happens to be frequently. He explains that he feels the need to go somewhere-anywhere. To move. But he can't even bring himself to do so because he is too worried to even do that. It's like his body is frozen in worry. From what Holden tells us about this trait of his, we can infer that he lets his emotion take himself over, that is one of his weaknesses. When Stradlater arrives home from his date he asks Holden for his composition he asked him to write and instantly gets angry because it was supposed to be a descriptive piece on a room but he wrote about his brother's baseball glove. Stradlater then tells Holden that he can't do anything right, he always defies instruction and that's why he's failing all of his classes. Being the statement-maker Holden is, he lights a cigarette in the dorm to annoy Stradlater. He cannot stand when Holden breaks the rules, especially smoking in the dorms. Holden gets offensive about Jane, asking where they went and what they did. He gets so angry that he tried hitting Stradlater whilst he is brushing his teeth to "split his goddam throat open". It's obvious that Holden has major internal issues, he is a troubled soul.